Is There a Creepy Critter Lurking in Your Home?

What these homeowners found in their attics and basements will shock you.

The basement is already a frightening place for many homeowners, but what if a mysterious creature was hiding down there? 

Mother of three Lana Segale says the basement of her New Jersey home gives her the creeps.

It is a very cluttered mess and who knows what can be lurking in the room down below. 

"I am afraid," she told Inside Edition. "I am afraid of anything jumping out at me."

What really scared her was the day she smelled a putrid odor coming from somewhere in the basement

Segale dragged her husband, George, downstairs to check it out and even he was spooked. He brought along an iron skillet just in case something was alive.

To find out what was inside the basement, Inside Edition set up surveillance cameras all around the basement. It captured a slew of field mice living in the room. 

Attics can also be a frightening place to some. 

Allison Davidson lives in Cortland, N.Y. She got really freaked out when she heard a strange sound in the attic. 

“My husband left on a business trip and a couple hours later I heard noise above my kitchen,” she said. “Then I heard noise outside.”

She went outside and saw a raccoon carrying its babies. She couldn't believe it when she saw the animal climbing over the fence and then entering her house, coming right in through the doggy door.

“I was trying to alarm the raccoon — kick, screaming as much as I could to have her not come in the house," she said. 

The resourceful raccoon apparently climbed up boxes in the garage, made its way all the way up right up to the attic, where she made herself at home. 

Inside Edition set up a night camera that caught her scavenging around.

Davidson summoned local wildlife expert Jim Horton, who used an inferred heat-seeking camera and confirmed the presence of the raccoon, which was not at all happy to see him. 

He set up a cage at one end of the attic, and then went in where the raccoon had made a nest in the floor boards. 

The raccoon tried a few times to attack Horton as he tried to get it out and eventually it ran off and straight into the trap. 

Her babies were also safely removed and placed in a carrying cage.

Mother and babies were later reunited and will be released in the wild. Davidson no longer has to fear the attic. 

RELATED STORIES